Technology today can make the savviest marketer dizzy with anticipation. The addition of Snapchat, Virtual Reality, and Artificial Intelligence may sound like a future utopia where we video conference with Judy Jetson from our flying cars to get more (of the good kind of) traffic to our websites. But none of this new technology matters if you don’t humanize your content with intention.
When you create Human Content with intention, you get the kind of traffic that customers on the new social media platform Flutter love. Haven’t heard of Flutter? It’s a social media app exclusively used for when you’re in your flying car.
Just kidding.
There’s no social media network named Flutter…yet (that would be terrifying!)
So, how is a savvy content marketer supposed to flit and flutter through the fake to fearlessly build a fanatical audience?
For the fun of this article, you’ll need to time-travel into the future (because you’ll need a flying car!) And you’ll need to choose your own character (because why not?!) You can either be:
a) a Judy Jetson Millennial
b) a George Jetson Gen X’er
Got your character? Good. Now grab some snacks, blast some tunes, and if you’re feeling extra frisky you can even live-stream the reading of this article (preferably from your flying car!)
Ready? Good. Let’s go!
Step 1:
You’ll need an improved content strategy to have the most fun with your audience (while bringing in new business). Your content strategy should focus on the formats and channels that work for you, rather than trying to tackle every single one.
Step 2:
Use your imagination with where you go. This may or may not require imagining the exits on the highway as the various social media platforms (stick with me here). You won’t want to stop at every exit but you will want to know what can happen at each location.
Step 3:
Decide in advance which platforms (aka exits) are worthy of your time. I’ve outlined a few of the biggest ones below. Let’s take a look at the various social media “exits” throughout your road trip to see which ones work for you:
Exit 1: Facebook
Facebook is the largest and most recognized social media platform, and it’s a “general interest” platform where people of all ages, from all over the world hang out. If you and your customers are younger than age 30, you may want to fly past this exit to save time. But if you’ve already built a solid following on Facebook, you’ll want to keep up with its constantly changing algorithm. For example, added Authorship can deepen your reader’s connection with your work. According to Facebook, this will “make it easy for Facebook readers to start following the author of an article they just read and enjoyed.” This new addition comes at the heels of another addition to Facebook’s algorithm measurement: time spent reading. This means that Facebook takes into account the amount of time spent reading stories in a news feed.
While you’re at this exit, you can update your audience with a Facebook ad campaign. Make sure that the structure of your campaign is solid. This means that you measure your results, test different audiences, and identify which ads work the best.
Tip: Try out Facebook Live to connect in real time with your audience.
Exit 2: Snapchat
Snapchat, a platform built on short ephemeral messages, seems destined to become a long-lasting social media powerhouse – and the recent addition of Snapchat memories makes it so (because seriously: who can remember anything, anyway?!)
Artifical intelligence is the next phase of human evolution. And Snapchat knows that we all secretly just want a better memory, so they created a video to explain how “Memories” work. The fact that we need technology to help us remember our basic human functions is a bit frightening. But it’s our world now. Hey, let’s snap it!
If you’re looking to reach Millennials, start with Snapchat. Millennials want to form their own style. And at this location, they not only form it – they own it. The filters are fun and the memories keep you coming back to remember!
Tip: Remember that memories are painted with nostalgia. And filters can never recreate true unbridled joy in the moment. Live!
Exit 3: Twitter
Keeping your audience updated is a must with content strategy (and especially if you’re road tripping with Judy Jetson!) Twitter is the most efficient place to create short and fun updates. You can start a hashtag for your road trip such as “roadtrip2016.” Or you can get even more creative with a hashtag that involves an inside joke (that you only reveal on Snapchat). Those who follow you on Snapchat, will head over to Twitter to keep the conversation going and to engage with you while you’re on the road.
Or you can get even more creative with a hashtag that involves an inside joke (that you only reveal on Snapchat). Those who follow you on Snapchat, will head over to Twitter to keep the conversation going and to engage with you while you’re on the road.
Tip: Click to tweet this article (and engage with me!)
Exit 4: LinkedIn
Get out of your comfy car clothes and into your suit before you stop at this exit. LinkedIn is the most professional of the networks, so make sure that you dress the part. If you stop at this exit, you’ll need solid wi-fi for when you write your long-form post. It may be hard to stay afloat on this platform with the rise of Influencer posts. But if your customers hang out here, it’s worth every effort.
Tip: Don’t just connect with anyone here. Make sure that you form a relationship first. Heck, someone just reached out to me the other day. I had no idea who he was, but we hopped on a call – and now I do! This is the benefit of networking socially! Don’t abuse it.
Exit 5: Video
By this point in your road trip, you should have enough b-roll footage to produce a video for YouTube. But you’ll need time, creativity, and especially good lighting to create a high-quality video. You can record the video on your iPhone and add music as the soundtrack.
Tip: No shaky videos please.
Final Destination: Blog
If you’ve made your way to the final destination, you’ll need to teach others in a fun, informative way. Put all of your previous exits efforts together to create a bunch of insightful blog posts that detail your journey. This acts as your survival guide for the content marketing travelers of the future!
Make sure to include the beautiful images that you captured along the way in your post, along with any links to other helpful articles on the best tools, trends, and tips to boost SEO.
Content marketing is quite a trip. But if you create Human Content, you’ll learn how to fly through the future (flying car and fun filters required!)
Tip: Need help building your audience? Contact me here.
Image credit: ThinkStock.
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